I sure hope that TSA employees receive regular payment bonuses for their job because it’s definitely one of the most nerve-wracking occupations at the moment. They are obligated to follow a set of incredibly strict regulations, and a single mistake can prove to be dangerous or even catastrophic. But, aside from being awfully stressful, this job also comes with another amazing feature: human contact.

When working with such a big influx of passengers going back and forth between flights, you are bound to encounter all kinds of people. After writing up this list of the 16 Most Insane Things Found By Airport Security On Travelers, I’m tempted to say that TSA workers have seen it all. Don’t believe me? By all means, read on.

1. Dead Snakes

I’m resisting the urge to make a Snakes On A Plane joke. It’s too easy. According to the TSA blog, a passenger alerted the explosive substance detector’s alarm. When airport security checked the traveler’s luggage, they discovered bags filled with liquid and dead venomous snakes. The best part is that, legally, there was nothing wrong with that, since there’s no law against deceased snakes flying on a plane.

2. Saw Blades

Bringing sharp objects with you on a plane is vehemently forbidden. This is why, usually, when someone is caught carrying these types of objects with them, this is either because they’ve never been in an airport before or they have some scores to settle if you catch my drift. In this case, it was shockingly neither. Those were Christmas gifts!

3. Grenades

Let’s say that you weren’t aware that you are forbidden to bring on board liquids that go over a certain limit. That’s understandable. Let’s say you didn’t know you can’t bring razors either. On a good day, we’ll say that’s also understandable. But grenades? This is what a passenger, who was caught carrying a grenade in his baggage, claimed.

4. Cannonball

Given how quickly this is escalating, I’m hoping number ten won’t be something like a tank or a fully armed AK-47 hidden among socks. Anyway, an actual cannonball was found in a luggage, and it caused so much panic that the respective area of the airport was evacuated, and a team of bombing technicians and explosive specialists was summoned. Fortunately, it turned out to be harmless.

5. Cellphone (Stun Gun)

Someone disguised a stun gun into a cell phone and thought they could casually carry it through airport security. You can barely get through airport security with some hand lotion, let alone a stun gun.

6. Powder Horn

As aesthetically pleasing this horn might be, it was actually very dangerous. Discovered at Little Rock, within a carry-on baggage, it hid roughly three ounces of black powder, which is incredibly flammable.

7. Chastity Belt

Uh… So, apparently, someone was so worried about the integrity of their chastity, that they decided to take a page out of the medieval book and wear a belt to protect it. Needless to say, the checkpoint gate alarms couldn’t have possibly known about the passenger’s noble intentions.

8. Fish

From the “animals on planes” category, we bring you: beings of Earth’s seas and oceans. Unlike the snakes, though, these 163 tropical fish and the other approximately 70 aquatic species were still alive and kicking. The traveler was allegedly flying them so they would inhabit a big aquarium. The TSA disagreed, confiscating them and passing them to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

9. Shurikens

Found at more than one airport checkpoint in the USA, shurikens are weapons that were famously used by ninjas. There are so many questions here. Are these people collecting them? Are they criminals with a fine taste in weaponry? Are they actual ninjas? If so, the fact that they travel via plane kind of shatters the mystery surrounding them.

10. Minefield

You thought a grenade and a razor were bad? What about a whole minefield, full of replica claymore mines?

11. VCR Filled With Smartphones

When the TSA began thinking that there was something suspicious about a particular VCR that a passenger was transporting, upon cracking it open, they discovered that they had a good reason for it. Next to a VHS tape were lined up twenty-three smartphones, all wrapped one by one in aluminum foil and taped to the VCR unit. Even though this was a painfully obvious case of black marketing, the traveler got the green light to board them on the plane, since they weren’t considered to be dangerous.

12. Grenade Launcher

Found in a luggage at Seattle Tacoma, this grenade launcher probably belonged to someone who was going to meet up with the other fellows that had been caught with grenades on them. An eye for an eye, a grenade for a launcher.

13. Bear Spray

A passenger was stopped by security at the Newark airport and it was discovered that he was carrying bear spray in his sock. The world is unpredictable, so it never hurts to be prepared at all times for the moment that bear apocalypse is going to kick in.

14. Pigeons

No, they weren’t dead. No, they weren’t in the passenger’s baggage. A man was arrested at the Melbourne airport after it was discovered that he transported two live pigeons in his trousers.

15. Illegal Content In A Grenade

Someone thought that the best way to sneak an illegal thing through airport security is by hiding it inside another illegal thing. Even the TSA employees were bewildered by the passenger’s choice of transportation.

16. Human Skull

Upon the inspection of a baggage, TSA agents working at Fort Lauderdale found actual human remains inside of several clay pots. The passengers that were transporting them claimed they had no idea about the sinister contents, but the area was still considered a crime scene afterward and thoroughly inspected.

Being a TSA agent is an… interesting job to say the least. As proven by the 16 Most Insane Things Found By Airport Security, when an alarm goes off, you can find a variety of things: some hilarious, some incredibly weird, and some able to potentially cause a hazard of proportions. Therefore, with all these things in mind, think carefully if you can put up with situations like these if you’re planning on getting a job at an airport’s security gates.

Share this:

Most medical conditions are scary but what about those ones that are just downright weird and baffling?

Yeah, they would be pretty awful to have. Like these strange but true medical conditions that you might never have heard of before.

Alien Hand Syndrome

Also known as Dr Strangelove Syndrome, this is an extremely weird medical condition that is also very rare.The main symptom is, quite simply, a mad flailing hand that the owner can´t control.It is a neurological disorder that can happen after a stroke or when the two hemispheres of the brain are surgically separated. The people who suffer from this condition lose the ability to control one of their hands.

Jumping Frenchman of Maine Condition

You don´t need to be French to get this condition and I don´t even think that it is strictly necessary to live in Maine, although it probably helps on some level. The rare condition gets its name from a group of French Canadian lumberjacks who were working in Maine in the late 19th century.These people seemed to over-react to any sort of stimuli, often behaving in a startled way or jumping uncontrollably. It is also known as hyperekplexia, while it is called Stiff Baby Syndrome when seen in new born babies. Unlike some of the other conditions on here, it can be controlled using drugs.

Stone Man Disease

This horrifying medical condition involves the affected person´s soft tissues, tendons and muscles turning to bone. This can eventually turn the sufferer into a human statue over time. There have been around 800 verified cases across the world and a shark extract has been cited as a possible help in treating the condition.

Nail Patella Syndrome

I have got to this stage in my life without being overly concerned about my nails. Sure, there was that time I clipped too much off one and it kind of hurt a bit but I gritted my teeth and got on with bloody life, old boy. However, the appearance in my vocabulary of Nail Patella Syndrome could end my years of care-free summer easy living. You see, this rare medical condition leaves you with no nails or with weird, spilt in two nails. It isn´t just limited to your nails though, as the condition can also affect your kneecaps and pelvic bone.

Foreign Accent Syndrome

This weird medical condition sees the affected person waking up after an accident or stroke and speaking with an unexpectedly false accent, a bit like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins but without all that lovable soot on their face. No one knows why this happens and there have only ever been a few dozen confirmed cases. Unconfirmed cases also mention people starting to speak a foreign language fluent after some sort of accident.

Fish Odor Syndrome

This condition is less painful and less life-threatening than most of the others here but a lot smellier. It is very rare (thankfully) and involves – jeez, do you need me to spell it out for you? Ok then, it is when you have a buildup of trimethylamine in your body, like when you had a trimethylamine curry last night and then think, shucks I´ll just have some trimethylamine on toast and a trimethylamine smoothie for breakfast. Do that stuff long enough and you´ll smell like flaming Nemo.

Share this:

There are few things better in life than biting into a tasty bit of food. Sadly, there are few things worse than biting into food and finding something you didn’t expect to be there.

The Swastika Sandwich

This is a bit of a strange story that has been in the news lately. A lady from North Carolina bought a chicken sandwich from McDonalds. Bizarrely, she found a swastika symbol on the bun. Hang on a second; I’m not generally in the habit of opening my sandwiches to see the potentially provocative designs on the interior of the bun but maybe I should start doing so. Do other people already do this? In fact, after seeing the rest of the strange stuff found in food we will probably all start doing that from now on.

The Glove Loaf

If there’s one thing you don’t expect to find in a loaf of bread it is, well, an oven glove baked into it. Yet, this is exactly what a lady from Northern Ireland discovered one weird day. The shredded glove was spread throughout the loaf and looks rather horrible if we are being honest.

The Wire Brush Sandwich

When a young chap from England unexpectedly found a wire brush in his chicken sandwich the staff apparently just laughed and offered him an exchange. It isn’t clear whether this meant a new chicken sandwich or a different type of cleaning implement.

The Frog and Vegetables Mix

When you rip open a bag of frozen vegetable there is usually very little to get excited about. Sure, there will be frozen peas, rock solid carrots and other vegetables that have been, frankly, frozen. However, what if a frozen amphibian popped out as well? Sure, that would be fun and would add a frisson of excitement to your day. The lucky old Hoffman family got a frog-based treat like this one day.

The Knife Sandwich

You’re kind of used to all those vaguely annoying questions in Subway by now, aren’t you? Do you want cheese? What kind of cheese do you want? Would you like a weird sauce with it? Now it seems as though they need to ask what kind of knife you want in there too. Do you want a bread knife, a cleaver or a dagger with that? This guy went for the 6 inch serrated option. Nice choice.

The Chicken Head

You have probably already heard about this one but I included it anyway, because that’s the kind of thing I do just to annoy you. In this case, the weird aspect is that it is the only of the strange things found in food on this list that shouldn’t be revolting, yet it is the most famous. Let’s face it; if you ate the rest of old Foghorn Leghorn you might as well scoff his freaking head as well.

The Screw Cornbread

I’m going to come right out here and brazenly admit that I have no idea what a jalapeno cornbread is meant to taste like. Hot, I guess. Kind of cornbready too, if my instincts haven’t failed me. However, one thing I can guarantee you is that it isn’t really meant to have a screw in it. Yet, this woman went to a restaurant chain called Luby’s and that is what she got. At first, she thought it was a really tough bit of jalapeno.

Share this:

Do you jump in your car in the morning to get to work? Stop being so boring. The world is full of deeply strange methods of transport which would give your life new meaning and purpose. Some of them might not even kill or maim you, if you are lucky.

Share this:

In the summer of 1982, five teenage boys sat down on a wooden bench together and posed for a group photo at Copco Lake, California. 30 years later, they’re still taking that photo. High school buddies John Wardlaw, John Dickson, Mark Rumer, Dallas Burney and John Molony made a pact: every five years, they gather together at the California lake, sit on that same bench and recreate the picture they took at 19 years old.

To begin with, a ritual was never intended: the original picture from ‘82 was taken simply to mark the vacation. Captured with a 35-millimetre camera on self-timer, the photo saw the young vacationers sporting curiously “dark and mysterious” expressions as Molony held up a Folgers Instant Coffee jar containing a live cockroach, a piece of butterscotch candy (food for the cockroach) and a photograph of Robert Young (company for the cockroach). Revisiting the lake in 1987 saw them taking the photo again, on the advice of cabin owner Wardlaw (nicknamed “Wedge”), with the same facial expressions and the same pose, and they’ve done so ever since.

Their touching tradition recently gained media attention when Dickson posted the photographs on a website dedicated to the pact. “Watch us lose hair and gain forehead, gain and lose and gain and lose weight,” Dickson posted on the site. “There are reasons we all decided it was better to take the photo with our shirts on.”

Such collective dedication makes for a heartfelt tribute to the power of friendship. But how long will this go on for? “We plan on doing this for the rest of our lives, no matter what,” says Dickson. “Up until there’s one guy just sitting in the same pose! Even then, maybe someone will take a picture of an empty bench for us.” [Read more…]